Increasing use of telephones and telephone-like audio communications devices has required the development of labor and time saving devices. Various types of “cell telephone holders” for vehicles are known, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,490,437 issued Dec. 3, 2002, to Bisplinghoff. Such devices basically hold the cell phone while a driver uses it.
A different popular device is the wireless headset. By wearing a headset having earphones and a microphone, a user can escape the need to continuously hold an office telephone or cellular telephone or other audio input/output device up to one ear. In operation of the wireless headset the headset device itself and a base device communicate by means of RF transmissions. The base device is then physically attached to an office telephone, a cellular telephone or similar device. There have been various attempts to provide a way to hold a cell phone to a user's ear, or to combine the operations of the cell phone and base unit. Examples include U.S. Pat. No. 6,374,090 issued Apr. 16, 2002, U.S. Pat. No. 6,269,259 issued Jul. 31, 2001, to Lai, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,417 issued Dec. 31, 1996 to Rydbeck. If any of these have actually appeared on the market, they are presently unknown to applicant. None disclose any structure similar to the present invention.
Wireless headsets offer enormous time savings to office workers due to the hands free mode of operation provided. The user wears the wireless headset with microphone and speakers, leaves the base unit safely tucked away, and need not use one or more hands to hold a telephone handset or control the base device. Thus in a broad range of applications, the device of the present invention may be used to provide convenience and increase productivity: secretarial work, telemarketing, office work, etc.
Various wireless headsets schemes have been proposed. In general, the headset unit itself and the base unit with which it communicates are both made as small as possible. In the case of the base unit, this means that a device of ever shrinking proportions is being placed next to an office telephone and other full sized office equipment. This in turn makes it easy for an accident to occur in the office setting: the base unit may get damaged due to having something heavy set on it, the base unit may be detached during usage and so on.
Another use of wireless headsets revolves around mobile use in conjunction with cellular telephones. In general, the base unit must be securely attached to the cellular telephone. Now the problem is doubled: a very small base unit must be attached to a cellular telephone which may itself be quite small. U.S. Pat. No. 5,426,689 issued Jun. 20, 1995 to Griffith et al for CORDLESS HEADSET TELEPHONE FOR USE WITH A BUSINESS TELEPHONE displays in FIG. 1 a base unit (base station 102) which is of a size comparable to a business telephone: this unit is obviously impossible to use with a cellular telephone. U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,182 issued Jan. 23, 1996 to Hansson for HANDS-FREE MODULE teaches a module which must be customized for each model of cellular telephone: it cannot be retrofitted to any type of telephone but the one for which it was designed. This enormously increases costs and decreases user convenience.
For safety reasons, a base unit to telephone attachment must be secure, despite the diminutive size of both devices. One major purpose of such headsets is reduce the danger of accidents while using a cellular telephone during driving, exercise sessions and other mobile activities. This purpose is defeated if the user is forced to hold a base unit in secure connection with the cellular telephone.
Unfortunately, devices on the market tend to be extremely unreliable: loose clips, adhesives and so on. At least with the use of adhesives, a high strength adhesive will provide a quality product. But this reliability then comes at the expense of more or less permanently affixing the base unit to a single cellular device/office device. In fact, attempts to remove a wireless base unit from a telephone or similar device could easily damage either the base unit or the telephone. Use of a re-usable “tacky” adhesive allows the base unit to fall off of the cellular/office device and reliability is lost.
Magnetic devices are normally unacceptable for use on delicate electronics having RF equipment, memory chips, etc. In any case, most modern office/cellular devices have nonmagnetic plastic housings.
One device of interest does not provide a flat plate nor a fastener as understood in the present invention, but at least allows mounting of a telecommunication interface to a flat surface in a more or less permanent way, with all of the disadvantages previously discussed. U.S. Pat. No. 6,223,062 issued Apr. 24, 2001 and entitled COMMUNICATIONS INTERFACE ADAPTER teaches this device. It appears largely unrelated to the field of wireless headsets for office or personal use.
It would be advantageous to provide a modular, reusable, flexible and standardized method of attaching the base unit of a wireless headset to a telephone, item of office equipment, cellular telephone or other device, provide a very high degree of security, and yet allow the user to easily remove the base unit from the telephone or other device and replace it or place it in a different location.